"Brendan
Nolan's comprehensive history and guidebook of Phoenix Park is a masterpiece."Community Voice.

"Very
well researched, and beautifully
written and illustrated.
Make sure to buy a copy. It is certain to be of interest to anybody
living in Dublin or within its commuter belt."... Lucan Toastmasters

Headquarters of the
Irish Defence Forces

In
addition to serving as functional buildings, a number of large houses
in the park are home to those living there.

Áras an Uachtaráin is home to the President of Ireland and
stands in its own grounds to the north of the main Chesterfield Avenue.
Its main entrance is beside the roundabout at the Phoenix Column. A near
neighbour is the serving United States Ambassador who lives in Deerfield
House.

Áras
an Uachtaráin
Áras an Uachtaráin is the home and workplace of the President
of Ireland. In 1754, less than ten years after public access to the park
was granted, Park Ranger Nathaniel Clements began construction of the
house. The first house was a plain structure and was a neat, plain brick
building.

There have been improvements and additions made to the house over the
years, the most noteworthy being the establishment of formal gardens by
Decimus Burton in the 1840s; addition of the East Wing in 1849 for the
state visit of Queen Victoria; installation of mains gas supply in 1852
and electricity in 1908; and extension of the West Wing for the visit
of George V in 1911.

Áras
an Uachtaráin is also a workplace where visiting dignitaries are
received and foreign ambassadors present their credentials to the President.

Ashtown Castle
Under a law passed by Henry VI in 1429, a grant of a tenner was made available
to every man within the pale who within ten years built a “£10
castle” of certain minimum dimensions. Ashtown Castle may well have
been built at this time

Restoration began in autumn 1989. The castle had been heavily altered
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the insertion of Georgian
windows, new floors and roof. Today, it is maintained as a museum.

Deerfield
House, the American Ambassador’s Residence

In 1772, Sir John Blaquiere was named Bailiff of Phoenix Park and as bailiff
he received a four-roomed cottage at what is now Deerfield, which he extended
into a Georgian house on sixty acres.

On 27 February 1927, the US envoy to the Irish Free State, Texan Frederick
A. Sterling opened a ministerial legation in Dublin.In 1949 a 999-year
lease was signed with the OPW and the US took over the maintenance of
the property.

FarmleighFarmleigh
dates from the 1880s. The house and grounds were purchased by Edward Cecil
Guinness on his marriage to his cousin, Adelaide Guinness, in 1873.

Irish architect James Franklin Fuller designed the extension of the house
to the west, refurbishment of the existing house, and addition of a third
storey in 1881–84. By 1896, the ballroom wing was added. A new conservatory
was added in a space adjoining the ballroom in 1901, where it currently
stands, in its refurbished manifestation.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) bought the house and grounds in 1999
from the Guinness family, for a guesthouse fit for the lodging of plenipotentiaries,
premiers, presidents and princes.

A landmark clock tower rises to some thirty-seven metres in height. The
tower contains an 8,183-litre water tank. A weir was constructed on the
Liffey at Strawberry Beds and a mile-long millrace channeled water to
turn a turbine, which pumped water to the tower and generated electricity
for the house. The lines were taken across the Liffey on an iron bridge
specially erected for the task.

Gates,
Lodges and Other Buildings There
are some thirty-eight lodges with living accommodation situated within
Phoenix Park and no two dwellings are of the same design.

The wall is itself designated as a protected structure and stretches the
entire way around the present-day park. It is eleven kilometres long and
three metres high. The wall also supports its own particular flora.

Each of the vehicular gates into Phoenix Park has a gatekeeper’s
lodge as part of the entrance cluster.

The
People’s Flower Gardens on Chesterfield Avenue were laid out on
21 acres in 1864 under George William Frederick Howard, seventh Earl of
Carlisle.

The
view from the Gardens includes the entrance to Dublin Zoo (left). A number
of buildings are situated inside the grounds of the zoo that are of interest.

An imposing
two-storey Garda Officers’ Club at the Garda Depot dates from 1863
and is the design of Benjamin Woodward.

The North Circular Road entrance to Phoenix Park is almost as busy a thoroughfare
as are the main gates at Parkgate Street and, again, a gatekeeper’s
lodge watches over the entrance.

The gatelodge
is just one of the dwellings in Phoenix Park that has its own history
and uniqueness that together make up the tapestry of life and structure
that is Phoenix Park.

Copies
of Phoenix Park a history and guidebook are a welcome addition
to your corporate or conference goodybags.